Exploring the synergy between personality traits and corporate social responsibility for a competitive advantage in attracting high potential employees.

Due to the rise of the war for talent, organizations are actively finding ways to improve their attractiveness by leveraging CSR. There has been a constant need to not only attract potential employees but also quality individuals who share in the purpose of these CSR initiatives as part of the sustainable human resource management practices. This paper uses relevant study variables and comprehensive literature review drawing ideas from principles of basic values and the meaning of work, job-pursuit intention, value congruence, person-fit organization theory, signalling theory, social identity theory, role theory, and the attraction- selection-attrition theory; to attempt and answer questions related to the role of CSR in attracting high-potential employees, what draws individuals of this calibre to socially responsible organizations, the personal traits that these employees have in common, components of CSR that stands out the most among these candidates when choosing which organizations to apply to, how personality traits, attitudes and behaviours are relevant to organizational attractiveness, and whether they pose a competitive advantage to these organizations. The study aims at expanding on the view of socially responsible organizations from the perspective of candidates as an outside-in perspective. A quantitative survey was conducted on university graduates and young professionals to test the impact of different facets of CSR (philanthropy, environment, ethical governance, and social impact) on organizational appeal and how they interact with salient personality traits like altruism, innovation, ambition, and family orientation. Statistical tests like correlation, chi-square, and t-tests identified significant associations of a few personality traits with the preferences of companies with a good sense of CSR over higher-paying with no or less responsible ones. Findings show that altruistic and ambitious individuals, are better drawn to socially responsible companies, opening the role of CSR as both a predictor of organizational values and an employee attraction tool possibly for high potential performers. The study ends by hypothesizing the synchronization of the practices of CSR with sustainable HRM goals giving businesses a competitive advantage in the market today.